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Topic: What's "Bristol glass"? (Read 3648 times)

I'm a member of the ebay Porcelain, Glass and Pottery forum, and it drives me crazy that everyone seems to think virtually any opaque glass is "Bristol." Ebay is chock full of "Bristol" glass. I was wondering what the term means to you all. Are there narrow and broad definitions? Looking back through old threads, it appears the term is used mainly to describe a cobalt blue.

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Kristi

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."

Bristol Blue - Greenish blue to dark blue lead glass, so named because its main colouring agent (zaffre, containing cobalt oxide) was produced in or imported via Bristol c. 1760-90 and c.1820-40.

The generalised term "Bristol Glass" has, particularly in the 20th century, been erroniously applied to all sorts of glassware, possibly because the port of Bristol was at one time a major outlet for glass and other wares being shipped in and out of the port. There was only a limited style of glassware actually made at Bristol - and it was not the Victorian or early 20th century items often referred to as "Bristol glass".

I find that one confusing. Is it an actual glass factory or just a Bristol dealer who hijacked a fancy name for his shop? I am also not convinced that you could label cobalt blue, selenium red and pink ("cranberry") as Bristol?

Hehe that company was set up to use the term Bristol Blue as its name and make 'genuine' Bristol Blue souvenirs. It was a part of Nazeing Glass but now that they have separated the sites perhaps they sold it?

Apparently it refers to glass with a blue colourant imported via Bristol. So Bristol Blue was made in Sunderland, in the Midlands and in Ireland.

To complicate things, there is another misnomer for Bristol - the opaque painted vases from the end of the Victorian era. These are invariably Bohemian, but because there has been a glass industry in Bristol until the beginning of the 19th ct. which decorated milk glass, the name stuck.

When I was young my grandmother used what she called the 'bristol eye bath' when eyes needed bathing. I remember her having a dark green one as well as the blue one. Would these have been made in a Bristol glass factory, or was the connection the colour of the glass? steph. ps. What a wonderful world this site has revealed to me............Thanks folks.